All-star cast to power Asia's first World Football Summit

Then final days of April will see the bigwigs of world football descend upon Malaysia for the 2019 World Football Summit Asia that will be held for the first time outside of Spain with Kuala Lumpur being the first destination.

Over the two days on April 29-30, various talks and programes involving a multitude of speakers from varying backgrounds will take centrestage in KL to showcase all things in the world of football from the running of successful leagues to broadcasting to technology to player transfers.

"Starting with Malaysia, the summit aims to increase the level of awareness and share industry knowledge to improve and enhance various aspects of the game in Asia as a credible industry platform. The game is truly loved by all in the region and there is much potential to unearth and develop to elevate the overall standards of the Asian football landscape,” said Mohan Rajaratnam, CEO of World Football Summit Asia

On Thursday, it was announced during the pre-summit press conference that an exhibition matches will also be held prior to the start of the summit that will see La Liga legends such as Fernando Morientes, Christian Karembeu and Gaizka Mendieta go up against regional legends such as Zainal Abidin Hassan, Le Cong Vinh and Bambang Pamungkas.

The summit boasts a first-class line-up of speakers such as Oscar Mayo, Director of International Development of LaLiga, HRH Tunku Ismail, Chairman of the MFL; Dato’ Windsor John, General Secretary of the AFC; Luis Vicente, Chief Digital Transformation & Innovation Officer at FIFA, Pere Guardiola, Founder & CEO at Media Base Sports.

World Football Summit, 11 Apr 2019

More than 60 speakers will discuss topics related to the importance of the Asian football industry, the emergence of eSports, fan engagement, the landscape of audiovisual rights, women’s football, antiprivacy efforts, technology innovation in the game, and many others.

“Since its inception, we have supported WFS in its initiative to organize an international edition, and it was clear that Asia was the right place to start as majority of the world’s population is situated here. Kuala Lumpur is a great choice due to its strategic location, existing large fan base, exceptional football culture, and its growing economy with rising purchasing power.

"We are extremely confident that first edition of the summit outside of Europe will be a huge success contributing to the development of football in the Asian region,” – Ivan Codina, Managing Director of SEA, Australia, Japan & South Korea, LaLiga.

Top clubs and leagues such as FC Barcelona, Juventus, Arsenal, Manchester United, Paris Saint Germain, Borussia Dortmund, LaLiga, Bundesliga, and the Premier League will participate among top business brands such as Rakuten, DAZN, AON, Twitter and Lagardère at the summit.